Critical Perspectives in Media Q1(b) - Concepts and Theorists

 Representation - Richard Dyer

Dyer says that when considering the representation of a media product (i.e. your media production), we should ask the following questions:

1. What sense of the world is it making?  (In other words, what representation of the world is the product making?)
2. What does it imply?  Is it typical of the world or deviant?  (In other words, what messages are the representations creating?  Are these representations and messages familiar or unusual?)
3. Who is it speaking to?  For whom?  To whom?  (In other words, who is the intended audience for this product and how do the representations attract and address them?)
4. What does it represent to us and why?  How do we respond to the representation?  (In other words, what meanings and interpretations are created by the product?  How do you and other people interpret the product?).

Remember that representation is very complex.  For people it can involve gender, ethnicity, sexuality, ethnicity, regional identity, age, age and social class and status.  These can be constructed through characteristics like appearance (e.g. hair, clothing, make-up, jewellery) , relationships, possessions, behaviour and actions, voice (e.g. tone, accent, dialect, sociolect), job, hobbies, values etc.

Representation is not just about people.  For example, you may be able to analyse the representation of places, time periods and themes (such as betrayal or love).

Also see Stuart Hall https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTzMsPqssOY

See here for exemplars for representation: http://www.ocr.org.uk/Images/179236-example-candidate-answers-from-june-2013.pdf

Genre - Daniel Chandler, Steve Neale, John Hartley, David Buckingham, Deborah Knight, Gunther Kress, Nicholas Abercrombie, Tom Ryall, John Fiske, Rick Altman, Jonathan Culler, David Bordwell

Watch the following slideshow http://www.slideshare.net/HeworthMedia/genre-theory-6920670
Which of the theorists says something about genre that connects with your own product and the points you want to make about it?

Here are some of the key points:

Chandler 

• Conventions of content and/or form
• Assumption of the 'ideal reader'
• 'Interpretive community' can share a genre

Neale

• Repetition and difference
• Guarantee of meanings and pleasure (for audience)
• Audience expectations of what a genre will provide

Hartley

• Films often have the conventions of more than one genre

Knight

• We enjoy genres because we anticipate what is going to happen

Ryall

• Genre is a structural framework for producer and viewer

Altman

• Media language (meaning) and iconography defines genres

Culler

• Genre conventions establish a 'contract' of shared understanding between creator and reader

Use these framework for analysing your own product in terms of genre: http://social.ocr.org.uk/files/ocr/Generic%20Markers.pdf

Media Language - Michael Wohl

Michael Wohl is a film maker, author and software designer.  Read his explanation of the 'language of film' and see if his examples relate to your production.
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/language_of_film.html

His explanation of how camerawork creates meaning is very useful.  He breaks it down as follows:

• Who - the CU of a character
• What (is going on) - the MS showing a character performing actions
• Where - the LS showing the location
• When - shots that tell the viewer the overall point in the story that has been reached or the time of day or the time period
• Why - the ECU or BCU that suggests what a character is thinking
• How - MCUs of a character perorming an action or a series of CUs or ECUs of actions
• With whom - relationships and interaction (two shot, OTS shot, wide shot etc.)

He also makes some very good points about editing but he does not write so much about sound or mise-en-scene.  

Audience - Stuart Hall

Read about Hall's three interpretative codes here: http://www.slideshare.net/dphillips4363/reception-theory-presentation-833299  How did you intend audiences to interpret your product?  How did they interpret it?

Narrative - Todorov and Levi-Strauss

See here http://howardschoolmedia.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Narrative

A2 Examination - Q1b: Audience (useful reading)

Audience theory:
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/pph9701.html
http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/alevkeyconcepts/alevelkeycon.php?pageID=audience

Audience profiling:

• Age
• Gender
• Ethnicity and cultural background
• Education
• Religious and political affiliations
• Economic status
• Employment
• Sexual orientation
• Family background
• Marital status
• Group membership
• Interests 

Also use your audience feedback, focus groups and evaluations of your productions.

Audience research - some ideas

The marking criteria requires that you research existing texts and a potential audience.

Audience feedback is a good way of finding out your audience's views but you can also create questionnaires, conduct interviews or gather together a focus group (where a number of people discuss your questions).

Here are some questions that you might ask:

• What is your favourite genre(s) of film? Why?
• Do you watch the genre of our film?
• What themes do you enjoy in films?
• What character types do you identify with?
• Do you prefer British or American films?
• Do you like lots of action or more character/dialogue driven films?
• Have you seen our influential films?  What did you like/dislike about them?
• How do you like films to start?  A slow build-up or straight into a dramatic moment?
• When should titles be seen?  Before the start; during the start; or after the start.
• Do you have any preferences about whether a film should have music at the beginning or not?

You can also make up your own questions, but try to make them open rather than closed so that your respondents can provide you with a variety of answers rather than just 'yes' or 'no'.

Other ways of gaining feedback is through your blog and on Facebook and Youtube.

You can also create an audience profile for a typical viewer like this one:

"This is Shanelle Goodwin. She is 15 years and 7 months old, and lives in the suburbs of Leeds.

she dresses fairly straight forwardly - just jeans and a top. She enjoys sleepovers with her friends, and shopping at the weekends with her pocket money. She shops in places like H&M and River Island, Jane Norman, New Look, and Topshop.
She enjoys films like Mean Girls, Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging, House Bunny, St Trinians, Sex and the City, Mumma Mia, she enjoys watching them at the cinema and also buying them later on DVD and watching them with her friends, and jelly and icecream.
They would watch Hollyoaks, Friends, Scrubs, Family Guy, X Factor, America's Next Top Model, One Tree Hill. The main channels would be Channel 4; E4; Living Tv; ITV; BBC Three; Comedy Central.
The music this girl would listen to would be anything in the charts, varying from pop, hiphop. r 'n' b, indie music - not really a 'rock' or 'classical' or 'dub-step'. Listens to Kiss FM and Radio 1 for the 'chart hits'.
I think our film would appeal to this girl as she is a stereotypical girly girl who enjoys typical girly things, therefore, if this film was shown at her local cinema, this may appeal to her, as it's similar to other films she likes, such as Mean Girls, House Bunny, and Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging and St Trinians."